Defensive-minded Georgetown ready to get back to grind

There was a time when Georgetown’s football team concentrated most of its efforts on the offense.

The Bulldogs had weapons, but an injury here or there would derail plans in a heartbeat. Bradley Adams got sick of missing the playoffs, so he made a change.

The sixth-year Georgetown coach started putting most of his top players on the other side of the ball, content with dragging opponents into ugly, relatively low-scoring games.

“It’s just our philosophy. It’s not that I want to do it. It’s just what fits us at Georgetown,” Adams said. “We have some athletes, but depth is going to be an issue. You’ve got to put your best athletes on the defense.

“We don’t have to sell people on that anymore. … They know defense is our No. 1 priority.”

Last season couldn’t have been a better example.

Georgetown went 8-4, finished in a three-way tie for second place in Region VII-AAA and steamrolled Airport in a first-round playoff game, the school’s second-ever postseason victory. In the process, the Bulldogs allowed a respectable 19 points per game (a number heavily skewed by the 96 combined points Hartsville and Myrtle Beach scored against them).

With six starters back, that unit expects to be even better this fall.

“The defense has always carried Georgetown High School football teams,” linebacker Sheldon Billings said. “And it always will. We don’t know why, but it’s always been like that. Defense wins ballgames.”

Along with Billings, linemen Zaire Barron (57 tackles, nine tackles for loss) and Justin Reed (92 tackles, 15 for loss) are back. Billings, who was third on the team with 66 tackles a year ago, will be joined by fellow linebacker Markell Guiles, who had 54 stops.

Add in returning defensive backs Cavonte Gamble and Christian Johnson, and the majority of standouts from that side of the ball have another crack at putting up a bunch more numbers.

Adams’ defense-first policy, though, doesn’t change the fact that he’s also got a solid two-way quarterback behind center, too.

Senior Jarvis Brown has accounted for more than 3,200 total yards in the last two seasons despite dealing with injuries. He was hurt in the season opener a year ago, missed two-plus games and still passed for 1,536 yards and 11 touchdowns while rushing for 307 and four more scores.

“If we’ve got Jarvis Brown, we’ve got a chance against anybody,” Adams said. “As long as he’s healthy, we’re going to be OK. Jarvis is a very good player and he makes everyone around him better.”

Four of the team’s offensive lineman also return from last year’s team, something that will be crucial in protecting the quarterback in the pocket. The Bulldogs will also rotate four running backs, at least for time being, in order to keep players fresh.

After all, Adams added that three of those four also start on defense.

“If you can play good defense and special teams, you don’t need to be great on offense,” he said. “If that unit can play well, and we know they can, we can putter along offensively.”

This story was originally published August 12, 2015 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Defensive-minded Georgetown ready to get back to grind."